Valentines
by tilante
Summary: Across the years, Valentine's Day with Justin and Alex.  "Alex Gets Punished"-verse, but stands alone if you haven't read the others.  Early chapters are K, but moves up to T by the end.
1. Chapter 1

I know... I've got too many stories going already. But this idea wouldn't let go of me, so...

* * *

_February 12, 1998_

"What ya doin'?"

Justin Russo glanced over at his little sister, Alex, who was standing up on tiptoe to get a better view of the countertop where her brother was working. It was almost time for her to be in bed - well, technically, it was past time for her to be in bed, but since Alex wasn't old enough to be in school yet, their parents were quite lax about her bed time.

"I'm making Valentines for the other kids in my class," Justin explained, meticulously writing his name in block letters on one of the cards. He set it aside, on the stack, and Alex stretched her arm out to pick it up, opened it, looked at it.

"What's a Valentine?" she asked, frowning at it. It said something, but at four, Alex couldn't read yet.

"Valentine's Day is supposed to be a day for..." Justin frowned for a moment, searching for the right word, then gave up, "for being nice to people. My teacher says we all have to make each other cards and say we like each other, even if we don't."

"Oh." Alex frowned, then started going through the cards, looking at each one. Justin frowned at her.

"Be careful. If you tear those up, I'll have to make them again."

"Is that when Daddy gives Mommy those red candy boxes and flowers?" Alex asked, ignoring her brother's warning.

"Yes," he answered, working on the next card.

"Oh." She set the last card back down, said, "Are you gonna give me anything?"

"What?" Justin looked at Alex. "Why would I give you something?"

"Daddy gives Mommy candy and flowers. I want candy and flowers." Alex crossed her arms and put on a pout. "You should give me them."

"Alex - Dad gives those to Mom because they're married."

Alex frowned at her brother, then said, "Well, we're gonna be married when we grow up. So you have to give me stuff."

"What?" Just shook his head, looking at his little sister again. "No, we won't. Brothers and sisters don't get married."

"Why not?" she insisted, climbing up onto the stool next to Justin.

"I don't know, they just... they just don't. Alex, go watch TV or something. I need to finish this." He turned the stool partway, to face away from her, moved the card he was working on as he did. "Besides, candy and flowers cost money, and I don't have any."

"Then make me a card. I want a Valentine too!" Frustrated by Justin's facing away from her, Alex thumped him on the shoulder.

"Wh -" Justin started, then stopped himself, annoyed at how much Alex was getting him to say 'what'. He turned and looked at her for a moment, said, "I'm making them for my class. You're not in my class, Alex - you're not even in school yet!" he said, then turned back to what he was doing.

"Justin! Make me a card!"

"Alex, I can't!" Justin told her, not looking at her this time. "We only got enough - there's not any extra. Now please find something else to do - I'm busy!" He signed another card, hoping Alex would go away, but inwardly sure she wouldn't; Dad was downstairs in the sub station, closing up, while Mom was busy giving Max a bath. _And if Mom hadn't waited until the last minute to get the cards, I'd have this done already._ It was only the 12th, but the 14th was a Saturday, so his kindergarten class was going to have their Valentine's Day party tomorrow... and so he needed to get all twenty cards done before bedtime.

Justin being Justin, he couldn't just write his name on all of them, stuff them in the envelopes, then write the other kids' names on those. Instead, he was writing a personalized message to each of his classmates, ignoring the fact that several of them couldn't read yet.

He finished another, set it on the stack, carefully not even glancing in Alex's direction. These days, with Mom busy a lot of the time with Max, she'd taken to following him around, poking into everything he was doing. As much as he loved his little sister, sometimes it got annoying - and when he was around other kids his age, it wasn't cool to have your little brother or sister following you, so...

Justin stopped then as he heard a sniffling sound. Turning around, he saw that Alex had moved away, and was over on the couch now, sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest, looking away from him. He turned back away, opened the next card and started to write on it, then stopped when he heard the sound again.

Setting his pen down, Justin slipped off the kitchen stool and padded over to the couch as silently as he could, then craned his neck to look at Alex without her seeing. She'd turned on the TV, and was staring toward it as DeeDee smashed her brother Dexter's latest experiment.

He started to reach out to touch Alex's shoulder - and just then, their Mom came down the stairs, carrying little Max. "Alex, turn that off," she said, and Justin turned to look at her. "It's time for you to go to bed. Justin, finish your cards up, and then you need to go too."

"Okay," Justin said, and hurried back over to the counter to resume work. As Alex got up and started up the stairs, though, he couldn't keep from looking, trying to tell if she'd been crying or not.

"Mommy, am I going to marry Justin when I grow up?"

Theresa raised her eyebrows at Alex's question, then smiled and shook her head, patting Alex's arm as she did. "No, mija. It's sweet that you want to, though."

Alex frowned cutely, looking up at her mother. "Why not?"

"It's... it's hard to explain," Theresa said. "But when you get older, you'll understand." She put a hand on her daughter's shoulder, looking down at Alex in her pajamas, looking cute and snug in her bed. "Why do you ask?"

"He was making Valentines, and I told him he should get me flowers and candy, like Daddy gets you. But he said no," Alex said, finishing with a pout.

"Oh... I see." Theresa nodded seriously, trying hard to keep the smile off her face. "Well, you know your father and I always get you something. And who knows, maybe someone else will too. Now, good night, mija." She bent down, kissed Alex on the forehead, then adjusted the blankets around her, even though it was completely unnecessary.

Theresa walked to the door, looked back at her daughter, said, "Sweet dreams," then flicked out the light.

It was Justin's turn next. He was, of course, sitting up in bed reading when she came in, and Theresa smiled at that. He'd somehow managed to teach himself to read, just from looking at the books while she and Jerry would read aloud to him, and sometimes it was hard to get him to stop.

Seeing his mother come in, Justin dutifully stuck a bookmark on the page he was on, carefully closed the book, then set it on his nightstand. Sitting back up, he presented his cheek for Theresa to kiss, then scooted down into the bed. She reached for the light, and just before her hand reached it, Justin spoke.

"Mom," he said, then stopped, the words, _Was Alex okay?_ on his lips. But he held them back, knowing Alex liked to try to be a big girl, and if she had been crying... if she wanted their Mom to know, she'd tell her...

"Yes?" she asked, snapping Justin back to the moment.

"Can I have some water, please?" he asked instead. She brought it, then wished him good night and turned off the light.

Justin turned on his side and stared at his night light, frowning as he wondered if his little sister was crying in her room. A few minutes later, he heard his mom's steps on the stairs as she went back down, and then quietly slipped out of his bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Justin cracked open his door. The hallway wasmostly dark, the only light what was coming up the stairs from below. He could hear the TV on. _Wrestling, it sounds like. _If Dad was watching wrestling, Mom was most likely reading.

Slipping out the door, Justin shut it carefully behind him, then went into the bathroom, where the emptied the glass of water Theresa had gotten him into the sink. He shook it twice, took the corner of a towel and ran it around the lip of the glass. Thus assured that nothing would drip onto the hallway floor, Justin went to his sister's door and carefully placed the glass against it, then his ear against the bottom of the glass.

After a moment, he started to hear it - soft, barely audible even with the glass, but definitely there. Small, slow sobs, a few seconds between them. _She's crying. And it's my fault._

Swallowing, Justin straightened up, holding the glass down at his side. After a moment, he went back into his own room, put the glass on his night table, then back to Alex's door. For a moment, he stood, trying to decide what he would say. The moment stretched, became half a minute, then a full minute. Still, Justin wavered - but then he heard the sound of feet on the stairs, and he immediately opened Alex's door and went inside.

_Oh, heck_, he thought, _don't be coming up to check on one of us. Please._ He pressed his ear against the door, wishing he still had the glass. He couldn't hear anything, but the door didn't open, and he started to relax - and then heard a distinct sniffle.

"Justin? Is that you?" Alex's voice asked, and Justin turned around, saw Alex silhouetted against the glow of her night-light as she sat up in her bed.

"Yeah," he said, nodding and walking over to her. "I... I wanted to check on you." Justin looked down at his sister for a moment, then blurted, "Are you crying because of me?"

There was another sniffle, and then Alex shook her head, the motion making her hair bounce. "No," she said, too quick and too loud. "I... I had a nightmare."

Justin knew she was lying, but didn't call her out on it. Instead, he took his little sister in his arms and hugged her. Her arms slipped around him in return, and she buried her face against his chest, sniffled into it.

Justin rocked Alex side-to-side a little, the way their mother would when comforting either of them, and stroked her hair slowly. "Hey... I'm sorry I snapped at you. You know you're my favorite girl, right?"

"Really?" Alex sniffled, and Justin nodded.

"Really."

For a few seconds, Alex was silent, and then she hugged Justin hard. "I love you, Justin."

"I love you too," he said, then after a few seconds, let go of Alex - but she didn't let go of him. He waited a good five seconds, and Alex still wasn't letting go. "Umm... I should go back to my room," he said then.

Alex shook her head against his shoulder, said, "No. Stay here."

Justin opened his mouth to protest, but then Alex said, "If you leave, I'll cry again," and he was stymied.

* * *

"Justin - what are you doing here?" He blinked his eyes open, looked up at his mother, and it took a moment before he realized that he was in Alex's room, another before he remembered why. Justin was on his back, and Alex was curled up against him, using his shoulder as a pillow, an angelic smile on her face.

He blinked again, said, "I heard Alex crying last night. She said she had a nightmare, so I stayed to help her get to sleep."

Theresa smiled down at him, the ruffled his hair with her fingers, said, "Well, aren't you the good big brother. That was very nice of you, Justin."

He smiled in return, then turned his head to the side, looked at the still-sleeping Alex, then back up at his mother. "Okay," she said then. "Get into your room and get dressed. You need to go to school."

"Okay," Justin said, then reached for Alex's pillow, carefully moved her head onto it, then slipped off the bed.

* * *

That evening, neither of them said anything about the night before. Alex was put to bed, then Justin - and Justin once again slipped out of his bed, but this time, went to his desk, found crayons and stiff paper.

"Mommy! Mommy! Come see what_ I_ got!" Alex jumped up and down on the stairs, then ran back up them as soon as her mother looked from where she was in the kitchen. Sighing and shaking her head, Theresa went to the stairs, muttered a "Yes, I'm coming, baby," as Alex stood at the top of them, jumping up and down there as well.

A minute later, Theresa opened the door to her daughter's room - and saw on her nightstand a hand-made card the size of a sheet of typing paper, sitting among a dozen painstakingly cut, folded, and colored paper roses. Alex bounced to the nightstand, grabbed the card and bounced back to her mother, holding it up and asking, "What does it say?"

Theresa sat on the bed, pulling Alex onto her lap, held up the card in front of them, read "Happy Valentine's Day, Alex" from the front, then opened it. She smiled, then read it to Alex.

"Sorry I couldn't buy you flowers. I made you some instead. I hope you like them.

Justin

P.S. I'll have to owe you the candy."

Alex went bouncing off again, this time in search of Justin, while Theresa ran downstairs, looking for her camera. _This_ Valentine's Day needed to be remembered.

* * *

February 13, 2008

"I _hate_ boys," Alex said as she flopped herself onto the Russo's living room couch, following it with, "Give me the remote."

"No," Justin replied calmly from the other end. "I'm watching this."

"Didn't ask, don't care," Alex said, as she half-stood to reach over him and grab the remote from where it was resting on the arm of the couch beside Justin. "It's a stupid show anyway."

The narrator's careful explanation of the evidence for dinosaur migrations was abruptly cut off as Alex flipped the channel. "What number is Cartoon Network again?"

Justin hooked his arm around his sister, pulled her back down, landing her in his lap with an "Oohf!" from her. She stuck her arms straight forward, trying to keep the remote out of his reach, but Justin's arms were longer, thanks to his most recent growth spurt, and he got a grip on the end of it, snatched it out of her hand again, then held it up as high as he could and flipped the channel back.

"No fair!" Alex called out, turning around and getting on her knees. Justin pivoted his arm down and back and kept the other around Alex's waist, keeping it from her.

"Alex," he growled, "I'm trying to watch this. Ten minutes and it'll be over, and _then_ you can watch what you want!"

Alex made a frustrated cry, put her hands on Justin's shoulders and pushed. Unfortunately, since he was already leaned back, the only effect her effort had was that she pushed herself backward and fell onto the floor. She hit the floor with her fist, giving out another frustrated cry, then stood up, gritted her teeth at Justin, said, "You're all alike, aren't you! Just grab what you want, and the hell with everybody else!"

Justin blinked in surprise at his sister's outburst, started to say, "Alex, what -" but cut himself off as she was already past him and running up the stairs. Her door slammed hard enough to make Justin wince, even down in the living room, and he sighed, gave a last glance to the dinosaur trackways on the screen, then flipped off the TV and started upstairs to talk to Alex.


	3. Chapter 3

Finding Alex's door closed, Justin knocked with the knuckles of two fingers. "Alex," he said.

A muffled "Go away!" came back immediately.

Justin crossed his arms, then leaned sideways against Alex's door. "I'm not going away until you tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong, except that I've got a stupid jerk for a brother!"

"Max is going to be very upset that you said that, you know," Justin said, shaking his head and grinning a little. "He can be more sensitive than - woah!" Justin put out his hands to try to catch himself as Alex yanked her door open, causing him to fall for a moment, until he managed to catch himself on the doorframe.

"_You_ are the stupid jerk!" Alex hissed at him, smacking him on the shoulder as she did. Justin turned his hands toward her in what he hoped would be a placating way, but it didn't seem to work, as she smacked him again, this time hitting his forearm. "You're just another guy, not paying any attention to how the people around you are feeling, and -"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Justin backed off a step, said, "Alex, I'm sorry. If I knew you were upset, I would have given you the remote. Now _please_, tell me what's going on."

She stopped and stared at him for moment, then bared her teeth with a frustrated, "Uhh!" and stomped her foot. "Just stay out of my way!" With that, she pushed past him, walked quickly to the stairs, and went down them.

A few moments later, Justin heard the TV turn back on, and sighed a little in relief. Whatever was happening, at least she didn't seem to be determined to blame him for it now. He reached for the knob of her door, planning to close it, then stopped and frowned as he saw something in her trash can - torn-up pieces of what looked like a slightly pinkish envelope.

Looking at it from his sister's doorway, Justin wavered for a moment. _Tomorrow's Valentine's Day. Pink envelope obviously equals card… but why would it be torn up?_ Whatever the reason, Justin was sure that it had something to do with Alex's behavior. Crossing the room, he reached into the trash can, picked out the pieces of the card, then exited, closing the door behind him and carrying those pieces into his bedroom with him.

It took less than five minutes to put the card back together. Granted, he could have done it in a couple of seconds with magic - put he wasn't supposed to use magic without permission, and doing it this way was sort of fun anyway. It was like a puzzle, or like being a spy.

The card itself was a simple one - on the outside was a cartoon baseball bat and catcher's mitt, with "I'll Give You a Walk to First Base." Inside was, "Wanna Try and Steal Second?" There was no name on the envelope, but she'd signed it, and Justin was pretty sure who it had been meant for - Riley.

_So why was it torn up and in the trash? What happened today?_ He wasn't going to get answers from Alex, he knew, but he also knew who would know. _Harper. And I can get the answers out of her._

People are more than happy to talk to you about what they think you already know. All Justin had to do was mention "that thing with Riley today" and the floodgates opened. Fifteen minutes later, he knew all about it - how Alex has been wanting to have a special Valentine's with Riley, and she went to slip the card she'd gotten him into his locker after the last bell - only to spot Riley there with some blonde girl, and the two of them hugging closely.

Unconsciously, Justin cracked his knuckles as Harper described this to him. _I think I'm going to have to talk to Riley tomorrow._

* * *

Riley frowned as he looked through his locker. This wasn't unusual - while Riley was athletic and fairly good-looking, he was far from the brightest of bulbs. Finally deciding that he had everything he needed, he closed his locker door solidly, turning as he did to start toward his first class... only to almost run into Justin, who had been on the other side of Riley's locker door.

Arms crossed, leaning back against the lockers, Justin was doing his best to look like the stereotypical Hollywood teen movie tough guy. Unfortunately, while he had the pose down quite well, his button-down white shirt and red v-necked sweater didn't quite match. "Hey," Justin said, giving Riley a nod.

"Hey," Riley answered back, returning the nod as he stepped to the side and started forward. This wasn't exactly the reaction Justin was expecting, and he quickly stood up off the lockers and headed after the taller boy.

Justin tapped Riley on the shoulder, then jerked his head to the side when he looked. "I need to talk to you for a minute."

Frowning, Riley looked at his watch. "Can it wait? I need to finish up my math homework before fourth period."

"No," Justin said, gritting his teeth in annoyance as he did. "It's about Alex."

"Oh, yeah - do you know where she is? I got her a card, and -"

Justin interrupted Riley with a glare and curl of his lip, leaning in toward the taller boy, his hands balled into fists. "You got her a card? I don't think she's going to want your card, Riley. And I don't want you coming around her, if you're going to be cheating on her with some blonde! And -"

"What?" Riley shook his head quickly, looking mystified. "Cheating on her? Where are you getting this?"

"Harper and Alex both saw you yesterday after school, hugging some -"

Riley put a hand to his face, said, "Oh. Oh, hell, man..."

"Oh, hell is right," Justin said, getting in Riley's face again. "Nobody treats my little sister like that. _Nobody_. So -"

"Dude -" Riley held up both his hands, said, "Dude, that was _my_ sister."

"Your sister?" Justin blinked and frowned, then said, "Wait... you're cheating on my sister with your sister?"

"What? No!" Riley's face creased in an expression of disgust as he said, "Man, eww. How could you even _think_ something like that?"

Flushing slightly, Justin said, "Oh, um, uh... never mind." He backed off a step, folded his arms again, looking serious. "Well, okay, so you're not cheating on her... but Alex thinks you are. So you're going to need to do something _really_ nice for her."

He paused for a moment, opened his mouth just as the first bell rang. "Okay, umm... look, meet me after first period. We'll talk about this, okay?"

Riley nodded, smiling a bit, and clapped Justin on the shoulder. "Sure. Thanks, man."

"Yeah. No problem," Justin said, but he wasn't smiling as he did.

* * *

That night, at a quarter after eight, Justin was sitting in his room, kicked back in his desk chair with his feet against one leg of the desk (actually putting them _on_ the desk would be unsanitary). Slowly, he moved his left thumb and index finger together, waving the picture held between them.

His phone rang, and he looked at it, frowned when he saw that it was Harper calling, then shrugged. _What the hell. I might as well answer it. She'll just leave a dozen messages if I don't._

Thumbing the green phone button, he held it up to his ear, said, "Hi, Harper."

"Hi, Justin! Happy Valentine's Day! Did you get the card I made you?"

"Yeah. Thanks." He glanced over toward it, a lace-covered confection of pink, red, and white, and cringed a little mentally.

"I _should_ be mad at you, since you didn't get me one, but I understand. You were busy."

Justin eased his chair back toward upright, said, "What? Well, I'm always busy," he started, feeling a sudden bit of guilt that he hadn't gotten Harper anything, then annoyance at himself for the guilt. _She's not my girlfriend. I don't even want her to be._

He looked at the picture he was holding again, then tossed it onto his desk. "Well, yes - but I know what you did today. Alex may not know it, but I know Riley was telling some other guys about how broke he was a couple of days ago. So you tell me... how did he get money to buy two dozen roses, candy, _and_ take Alex out to dinner?"

"I have no idea," Justin said, looking at his wallet where it sat on his desk, considerably thinner than it had been that morning. _Yeah. Big chance I have of seeing that money again. Ah, well, it's not like I needed the money for anything today,_ he thought, with only a tinge of bitterness as his eyes slid to Miranda's picture, laying where he'd tossed it.

"Uh-huh. Well... wherever that money came from, I thought you should know that Alex just called me, and she's very happy. She liked the candy a lot."

"Good," Justin said, and his chest moved in a silent chuckle. _She should. Skipped third period to go get that. The things I do for her..._. "I made sure - uh, _Riley_ made sure everything in it was something she liked."

"Uh-huh," Harper said again, and this time, Justin could hear the smile in her voice. "Anyway, since you were busy being such a good brother today, you can give me my flowers and candy tomorrow."

"What? I'm not -"

The smile was still there as Harper interrupted. "Justin... you know, Alex is really happy right now... but if she were to find out that Riley wasn't really that thoughtful, then... well, we don't want her to find that out, do we?"

Harper paused, and for a moment, they were both silent. Justin opened his mouth, the words, _You do realize that's blackmail?_ on his lips, then closed it again as he realized that yes, Harper did know that, but she didn't really care.

"Of course," he said then. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Good. Good night!" Harper said, but Justin simply lowered the phone, thumbed it off.

He heard voices then, drifting up the stairs: brightly merry chattering that he couldn't quite make out, but the voices were undoubtedly feminine. _That'll be Alex, coming home from her date, telling Mom all about it._ He took his foot off the desk leg, let the chair fall to upright, then picked up the card he'd gotten her the night before, went to his door and opened it, leaned against the doorframe.

A minute later, Alex came up the stairs, bouncing slightly from foot to foot, smiling happily, and Justin felt an unaccustomed pain in his chest as she stopped and looked at him, flipped her hair and smiled. "I had the _best_ date. Riley was _so_ nice." Her voice shifted a little, to a gently mocking tone. "So what did you do? Stay in your room and read?"

A perverse urge ran through Justin, and he matched Alex's tone, said, "No. I gave the prettiest girl in school flowers and candy. She doesn't know they're from me, but I have it on good authority that she loved them."

Alex frowned at that, then shook her head and rolled her eyes. "So, what? Did you give her a card signed 'anonymous' with it? Or maybe 'from your secret admirer'? You need to get past the whole fourth grade thing, and actually _tell_ her you like her."

"I got her a card. Even signed it," Justin said, smiling. "I didn't give it to her with those, though. So she doesn't know it was me." He paused, said, "By the way, here's your card."

Alex reached and took it from him, held it without opening it. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and then she said, "You know - you don't have to get me these any more. I actually have a boyfriend now."

Justin shrugged, said, "I know. But you know me... I get into habits."

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes as she went into her own room. "Weirdo." But she said it with a smile, and a moment later, Justin heard the envelope being ripped open.

And somehow, that was enough.


	4. Chapter 4

February 12, 2009

Alex Russo sat on one of the counter stools at the Sub Station, leaning back onto the counter with one elbow, her left leg swinging side-to-side. Beside her, Harper was chattering about the new dress she was making, but Alex was only half-listening at best. She took a long pull from her soda, and watched her brother Justin.

_He is so pathetic, I almost actually feel sorry for him._ Justin was busing tables - at least, in theory. In practice, he was carrying around the bus tub and slowly putting away dirties with about a quarter of his attention, while the rest was focused elsewhere.

To be specific, it was focused on Millie, the annoyingly cute and perky blonde their father had hired as a server the summer before. _And I'll bet he and Mom had some discussion about that, once Mom saw her._ Normally, Alex would have been all for them hiring extra help, since it meant that she would have greater opportunities to slack... but something about Millie rubbed her the wrong way. _She smiles too much. It's not normal._

And indeed, Millie was smiling brightly right at that instant, saying something to a customer, an older man who was looking up at her and smiling back as she took his order. _Yeah, I'll bet he wishes she'd take something else too. He'll probably tip her at least four, the way he's eyeing her. _She paused, then cocked her head, considering. _I could get five from him. Maybe six._

She looked back to Justin again, and he was _still_ watching Millie, with a smitten expression that Alex knew all too well. _He used to look at Miranda like that. But at least Miranda was nice. Millie's just using him as a babysitter. Doesn't he _get_ that?_ As she thought that, Justin dropped his gaze and quickly started picking up glasses. Alex shifted her eyes back to Millie, just in time to see the oh-so-fake slightly flirty smile she'd given Justin.

A hand suddenly appeared in front of Alex's face, waved up and down. "Alex? Have you heard a word I've said?" Turning her head, Alex followed the arm attached to the hand over to Harper, who was now giving Alex an angry glare. On most girls, the effect of the glare would have been somewhat ruined by having a baseball-sized yellow bow perched on the left side of their head, but not on Harper.

Lip out in a pout, Harper folded her arms. "What was I just saying about the dress?"

"Oh, umm... you're making it out of..." Alex searched her memory. "Some... kind of... cloth?"

Harper's eyes narrowed, and Alex tried a smile. "I know I'm right."

The glare continued for several seconds, with Alex returning an innocent look, until Harper finally sighed. "Well, you've obviously got _something_ on your mind, Alex, so spill. If you won't listen to me, I might as well listen to whatever you're thinking."

Alex looked back at her for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm just annoyed at Millie."

"At Millie?" Harper automatically looked toward the blonde, prompting Alex to swat her shoulder.

"Don't _look_," she hissed. Harper looked to Alex, then back away, then back to Alex, this time widening her eyes and tilting her head a little forward. "What?" Alex said. "Are you trying to -"

"Hi," Millie said from right behind Alex. "Do you need me for something?"

"What?" Alex swiveled her seat and leaned back against the counter again to look up at Millie. "Oh, oh yeah -" Alex frowned as if trying to remember something, then snapped her fingers. "Mom wanted me to remind you that you're supposed to split your tips with whoever's busing. Since you're new to the business and all that."

She smiled at Millie, keeping it friendly even as she was gloating a little inside. _Yeah. You want to toy with my brother, you can at least pay for the privilege._

The smile on Millie's mouth stayed in place, but all traces of it dropped from her eyes. "Oh. Thanks for reminding me. I'll make sure to do that."

"Good," Alex said, tilting her head, her own smile growing a little. "Talk to you later." She turned away from Millie, back to Harper. "So, you were saying about your dress?"

"Oh, yes," Harper said, her eyes lighting up as she lifted her hands. "It's going to be blue, and I've gotten white lace for the neck. Justin's going to -"

"Is she gone?"

"What?" Harper blinked at Alex.

Speaking more slowly this time, Alex asked, "Is she gone? You know? Em-eye-ell-ell-eye-eee?"

Harper frowned, then said, "Mill -" but was cut off as Alex put a hand over her mouth.

Nodding and smiling, Alex looked over her shoulder, saw Millie across the room, then looked back at Harper with a scowl. "Don't you know anything about being sneaky? Anyway, I hate the way she's just using Justin. That's _my_ job. And he can't be doing stuff for me if he's busy doing stuff for _her_."

"Oh, Alex…." Harper patted her friend's hand. "I know what's wrong here. You're upset because you and Dean are off again right now, and Valentine's Day is Saturday. Don't worry. You've still got me. And Justin'll get you something. He always does."

"Last year all he got me was a card," Alex said. "And I told him he didn't need to keep getting me stuff." _Why did I tell him that? Since when do I turn down anything that's free?_

"No," Harper said, shaking her head, "last year he got you candy and flowers, and you went to that restaurant."

Alex turned her head to look at Harper, then dropped her chin. "What? No, Harper - that was Riley."

Her eyes widening a little, Harper nodded quickly as she blushed. "Oh, right. Riley. Silly me," she said, lifting a hand up and rolling her eyes, then bonking her head lightly on the side. "Confusing Justin with Riley. It was Riley who got you those things. Not Justin. Yeah."

Turning the stool back around to face Harper again, Alex frowned at her. "Are you okay there? You're acting a little -"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Harper said quickly, burying her face in her hands. "You can always tell when I'm lying! I'm so sorry, but he gave me stuff, and he was so nice, and you know I -"

Alex looked around to see if anyone was looking at Harper's outburst. Thankfully, no one was yet. "Harper, calm down. What are you talking about?"

Lifting her head back up, Harper looked Alex in the eyes. "Riley gave you those things, but Justin bought them."

"Wait, wait - _what_?" Alex shook her head quickly. "_Justin_ bought those?"

"Yeah." Harper flipped a hand up, then started talking quickly. "You remember - you were mad at Riley because you saw him hugging his sister, but you didn't know it was his sister, and Justin went to talk to him, and found out what it was, but Riley was broke, so Justin bought the flowers and candy and gave him the money for dinner, and I wasn't supposed to tell you any of this, and _please_ don't tell Justin I told you, because I don't want him to break up with me over it!"

For several seconds, Alex just looked at her friend, too stunned to even remind Harper that Justin wasn't dating her.

* * *

Five hours later, it was closing time, and Alex was in the "subway car" part of the restaurant, straightening tables. _Dad may have caught me before I could escape upstairs, but I can work nice and slow over here, and at least not have to do much._

She glanced toward the window, then frowned as she saw Justin running up the stairs. _What's he in such a hurry for? _She moved to the window, looked around. Theresa was doing the tables in the main part of the station, Jerry was in the kitchen, and Milly was behind the counter. Alex watched them for a few seconds, then started toward the stairs.

Before she got more than a dozen feet, though, Justin came back down, one hand behind his back. He stopped at the bottom, looking around to see where everyone was, and Alex slipped out of sight.

_Okay, time to do a little spying. _She reached down, pulled her wand from her boot, then said, "_Some people are a gem, some people are a rat, to learn who's who, give me the ear of a bat._" Alex shook her head and brushed her hair away from her spalled ear and listened.

"Millie," Justin said, and Alex could tell that he was trying to be quiet, but she could hear him quite plainly.

"Oh, Justin - your sister told me about the tip sharing thing. Here's your share."

Alex gritted her teeth at the noise as Millie shook a bunch of coins. When that stopped, she heard a thudding sound, and after a moment, she realized it was Justin's heart.

"Oh, umm. Don't worry about that right now," Justin said. "I, umm…." He swallowed, then quickly said, "I kind of overheard you talking to Mom the other day, about how Matthew broke up with you. So, I was thinking that a girl like you should get something nice for Valentine's day, and…."

He stopped talking, and Alex looked around the corner, saw Justin holding out a large heart-shaped candy box and a bouquet to Millie. Her eyes widened, and then she ducked back out of sight.

"Oh, thank you! That's really sweet of you, Justin." Alex heard Millie take them, then lay them on the counter.

Justin cleared his throat, said, "Umm… I was thinking too… you shouldn't have to be alone for it. I was wondering if you'd like to see a movie, or….."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'd love to, but I can't." _She's batting her eyes at him. I just _know_ she is._

The disappointment in Justin's voice was clear. "Sorry. I should've realized that a girl like you would already have something else. You probably have guys just lining up to date you."

"No, no," Millie said. Justin's heart rate went up again, and Alex peeked, saw that Millie had her hand on his arm. "I'm doing a thing with my Mom."

"Oh!" Justin looked at Millie again, smiled. "In that case, maybe we could do something next Friday? If you're not busy…."

"Friday? I think I could do that." She flashed him a smile, and Justin smiled back with that same smitten look he'd had earlier.

"That's great," he said. "We can leave from here after work, and -"

"Justin!" came Jerry's shout from the back. "I need you in here!"

"Oh, umm…."

"Go," Millie said with a nod and a wave. "We'll work it out."

Justin backed into the kitchen, giving Millie a grin and a wave as he did. She waved back to him, then turned around, and Alex quickly hid again. _Well, Justin's got a date. Who would have thought it? _She shook her head and reached for her wand again, stopped as she heard Millie speak again.

"Hey, Tom. Just wanted to call and tell you I'm looking forward to tomorrow night." Alex perked her ear up , but while she could hear the phone's speaker, she couldn't make out the words. Millie's though, came through loud and clear.

"Friday? I've got something Friday, but I can get out of it. No, it's nothing important. Was just going to give this guy here a pity date." She laughed quietly, said, "He got me flowers and candy - can you believe it? Poor guy."

There was sound from the phone again. "Oh, don't worry about it. He's just a high school kid who's smitten with me. He's not like _you_." Another sound, and she giggled. "Mmm. I'll show you tomorrow. I think you'll like it. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you."

_That bitch_, Alex thought. _Just broke up with one guy, she's already dating another, _and_ she wants to put Justin on her string too? No. Way._


	5. Chapter 5

Alex didn't get a crack at Millie before she left the Sub Station for the night - which was probably a good thing, because the way Alex was feeling right then, she probably would have turned Millie into a toad. Or maybe a rat. Definitely nothing cute like a guinea pig, though.

Deprived of immediate revenge, Alex went up to her room, carefully locked the door behind her, then went to her closet and dug into the piles of stuff at the bottom of it. It took a bit of shifting things around (and the discovery of a pair of shoes she'd thought she'd lost), but Alex pulled out what appeared to be a "Candy Land" game box.

Standing up, she took it over to her desk, sitting down in the chair, set it down in her lap, then lifted the slightly-dented lid off, dropping it onto her bed. On top was her birthday cards from last year, but she set those aside, taking a degree of care with them that few would have thought Alex would take with any form of written material.

Beneath those were last year's Valentine cards - the one from Riley (_I should burn that_), a "Forever Friends" one from Harper, a "To Our Daughter" one from Mom and Dad, and Justin's. She set that one aside, kept digging through until she had a stack of all the Valentines cards Justin had given her. There were ten of them, and seeing them all together like that, Alex felt a momentary pang of guilt over the fact that she'd still never gotten one for him.

_Well, this year, I'm doing something better than a card. I'm going to save him from that bitch Millie. _She flipped through the cards, letting the question of exactly what to do to Millie simmer in the back of her mind as she did. The early ones were hand-made and block-printed, in Justin's neat hand. The fourth one was the first to be written in cursive, and the fifth was like it. A few store-bought cards followed, then a big, hand-made one.

Alex smiled, remembering that one. She'd been in middle school, and he'd moved up to high school, and she'd pestered him practically every evening. They'd had their first real fight that year, screaming and yelling at each other until their Mom had ordered them both to their rooms. She flipped open the card, read:

_Alex,_

_I'm sorry I've been so testy this year._

A giggle and grin escaped Alex at that, as she remembered how she'd seized on that line, tormented Justin about "testies" until their Dad had heard her saying that. She'd gone to bed an hour early for a week for that, but it had been _so_ worth it. And really, who said 'testy'? She was doing Justin a favor, getting him to update his vocab.

_I want you to know, it's not your fault._

_You're my little sister, and I love you._

_Even when I'm yelling at you,_

_I love you._

_Even when I refuse to talk to you,_

_I love you._

_Even when I'm telling Mom and Dad _

_about the latest thing you've done to me,_

_I love you._

_Justin_

_P.S. That doesn't mean I wouldn't __appreciate it if you were nicer._

_P.P.S. You should know, my underwear __drawer is now booby-trapped. Stay out __of it._

That reminder brought another grin. The last cards were store-bought again, but always carefully picked, fancy ones, and with something personal written inside. The other things he'd gotten her weren't there - the flowers (well, the real ones, at least - the paper ones he'd made with the first card were there in the box), the candy, the teddy bear he'd gotten her when she was in third grade...

* * *

Flashback: 1998

_"This one's my Justin-bear," Alex said, picking up the big brown bear and showing it to Harper. "Justin gave it to me last year."_

_"Oh, he's cute!" Harper said, nodding._

_"Yeah... I really like his eyes." Alex turned the bear around, looked at its face, smiled at the shiny black beads that were its eyes, the way the cut of the material around them made them look wide open and trusting..._

_"Oh, his eyes are wonderful," Harper gushed, lifting her hands up. "They're such a nice green -"_

_"What?" Alex shook her head, turned the Justin-bear back around to face Harper. "Justin-bear's eyes are black."_

_Harper looked at Alex for a moment, then blushed. "Oh... I thought you meant you liked _Justin's_ eyes..."_

_"Ewww, no!"_

* * *

Two quick raps sounded on the door, followed by "Alex?"

At Justin's voice, Alex snapped out of her reverie and quickly dumped the cards back into the Candy Land box, then flipped the lid over to shut it, saying back "Just a second!" as she did.

She moved to the door, then said, "What?" through it, not opening it.

"Can I come in? I want to ask you something."

"I can hear you just fine," she replied. "Ask me the question."

There was a moment's pause, and then Justin said, "It'll be easier if I can show you something."

Sighing, Alex said, "Okay... just a minute, then." She stepped back over to her bed, grabbed the Candy Land box, then shoved it under before returning to the door and opening it.

"You're a girl," Justin started, and there was no way Alex could resist an opening like that.

"Awww, you noticed!" she said, smiling brightly. "And it only took you what, fifteen years? Wait'll I tell Mom you figured out the difference! She'll be _so_ proud!"

Justin looked at her for a moment, then asked, "Are you through ridiculing me?"

"No," Alex answered honestly. "I'm just waiting for some more material to use."

Rolling his eyes, Justin stuck out a folded newspaper to her. "Which of these movies would you like to see?"

Alex took the paper from his hand and looked. Of course, she knew perfectly well that he was trying to ask her what movie she thought Millie would like, but he was trying to be clever by not actually saying that. _Well, that's just going to backfire on him, isn't it?_

"The Valentine Killer," she said, then stepped forward and hugged Justin tightly. He froze in surprise for a moment, and Alex said, "And thank you _so_ much for taking me to a movie. You always know _just_ what to give me for Valentine's Day."

"Oh, uh, um -" Justin's arms went around Alex, returning the hug as he tried to find some way to back out of it, but Alex was having none of that.

"I can't go until Friday, though. Mom's got me grounded until then." That was a lie, but as much as she was grounded, Alex was sure Justin would believe it. She let go of Justin, stepped back from him. "You know," she said then as another idea hit her, "I've seen the way you've been watching Millie. Do you know what girls really like?"

"What?" Justin asked, all ears now.

"When guys are attentive to their sisters. It makes them think the guy will treat them well too."

He gave her a doubtful glance. "Really? Are you sure about that?"

"Justin... didn't you just say I'm a girl? Of course I know what girls like." She took his hand, pulled him into her room, pushed the door closed behind them with her foot. "But remember, you shouldn't throw yourself at a girl. You should ignore her to start with. If she already thinks she has your attention, then she's going to ignore you. Haven't you ever noticed how girls go for guys who treat them like jerks?"

By this point, Justin was frowning and blinking. "But you just said that they like it when guys are nice to their sisters, because -"

"It's a carrot and stick thing," Alex said, rolling her eyes as if it should be obvious to any idiot. "The carrot is them hoping you'll treat them well. The stick is treating her like a jerk. Or is that the other way around?"

Justin opened his mouth, but Alex kept going. "Anyway, trust me. I'm the girl here. Just take my advice, do exactly what I tell you, and you'll have Millie following you around in no time. Okay? Okay," she answered herself, still not giving Justin a chance to protest. "So, here's what we're going to do tomorrow..."


	6. Chapter 6

Alex stretched and smiled, caught Justin's eye, then gestured him over. He walked over at his usual quick pace and gave his sister a friendly smile. "Yes?"

Stretching a little, Alex gestured and said, "My shoulders are feeling a little tight. Rub them?" She tilted her head and smiled with that. Justin frowned, so Alex leaned over to him, whispered, "Girls love backrubs, dork. This way she'll know you can give a good one."

Justin gave her a skeptical look, but nodded, then moved behind Alex, brushed her long black hair forward, then put his hands on her shoulders and began to knead the muscles. As he did, Alex closed her eyes and let out a long breath. Justin's hands were warm, and he rubbed her in slow circles, kneading slightly with his fingers as he did. Her back hadn't really been feeling bad, but he was definitely making it feel better anyway. _I could get used to this._

After a few moments, Justin whispered, "Is she watching?"

Opening her eyes again, Alex said, "What? Is who watching what?"

"Is Millie watching me rub your back?"

Alex twisted her head a little to the side, then smiled. Millie definitely was watching, and didn't look at all happy about it. Alex gave her a little wave, then said, "Yes, she's watching."

Justin didn't ask anything further, and Alex was a little relieved at that. It wasn't that she would have minded lying to him, she told herself. It just made things simpler when she didn't need to.

So far, since they'd gotten home from school, Justin had taken Alex's books upstairs for her, made her a sandwich, refilled her drink, and now he was rubbing her shoulders. Millie, in the meantime, had been having to make up Justin's slack on busing tables, since he was busy with Alex, and was casting more and more annoyed glances at Justin, now upgrading to an outright glare.

_All of which is exactly according to plan._ And Alex? She was smiling happily, basking in the attention - more attention than she'd gotten from Justin since he first started dating Miranda. _I never should have encouraged that. Prep and goth? It was doomed from the start._

"Alex," Justin said then, and she realized that he was saying it for the third time. At the same time, she also realized that she'd put her arms on the counter, put her head on them, and was beginning to doze under her brother's ministrations.

"What?" she asked, sitting back upright.

"Is that enough?" Justin tilted his head to the side, toward a customerless, but uncleared table. "I really should get back to work."

_No. No, you shouldn't. You should stay here and rub my back for another hour or so._ Blinking more in surprise at her own thought than at Justin's work ethic - which she knew all too well - Alex said aloud, "Oh. Yeah, that's good enough. It feels much better. Thank you." Turning toward Justin on the stool, Alex saw Millie watching out of the corner of her eye, and impulsively grabbed Justin by the arm, pulled him closer, and kissed him on the cheek.

Justin started to frown at that, but then seemed to remember the role he was playing, and smiled instead - and then, to Alex's surprise, leaned in and kissed her on the temple in return. She blinked a couple of times at that, then quickly turned away from him as she felt herself starting to blush.

And _that_ surprised her as well. _I'm Alex! I'm the one who's supposed to be making other people feel embarrassed and stuff!_ He moved away, and after a few seconds, she turned partway back and looked at him. He was busing a table, working quickly at it, not looking at her (or at Millie, thankfully), but also not blushing or... or anything. Alex's eyes started to narrow in a glare - how _dare_ Justin handle her kiss better than she handled his! - but then she realized that Millie was still watching her, and she turned the incipient glare into a wink.

Of course, Justin didn't see the wink, since he was busy clearing the table, but that didn't matter - what mattered was that _Millie_ saw it. To finish up, Alex turned her head a little, looked at Millie as if she were just noticing that she was being watched, and gave the blonde a quick smile and wave. Not a friendly smile, though - in fact, it was more a smirk than a smile, heading quickly toward 'Yeah, I just did that' territory.

Millie had the grace to look away, and Alex returned to her soda, smiling.

* * *

_Wow_, Justin thought as he turned away from Millie, _Alex was right. This 'act nice to my sister/ignore her' combo is really working!_

And unfortunately (from Alex's point of view, at least), it was. In fact, through the course of the last four hours, Justin had become the focus of a strange sort of tug-of-war, as both Alex and Millie flirted with him more and more outrageously. So far, he'd been the recipient of multiple cheek kisses from both, a full gamut of winks and looks, a dozen of so shoulder and arm touches, and three full-body hugs (two from Alex).

"Justin." Alex touched him on the shoulder again as she said his name.

He turned to her, gave her a smile. "Yes?"

She gestured over toward table eight, a two-seater along one of the walls. At this point, Justin didn't even blink to see an open schoolbook on the table, along with papers that were spread out and a pencil - as odd as it was to see Alex doing homework, the rest of the afternoon before had been much odder.

"Can you show me how to do this math? I wasn't really paying attention in class." Alex being Alex, she said the last part without the slightest trace of embarrassment.

"Sure." Justin walked over to the table with Alex, put his hand on it and bent his head down to look at the book and her papers.

Alex, though, put her hand on his shoulder again, then gave him a push toward the chair and down, saying, "There's a few problems I need help with, really. Not just one." Justin sat, and Alex moved behind him, leaned over his shoulder as he started to talk. It was math stuff, and Alex didn't really listen, just nodded and make the appropriate noises as he spoke, crossing her forearms on his shoulder for support.

He explained the first problem, and she pointed out a second, then waited about fifteen seconds before saying, "Wait a second. This is starting to hurt. Let me sit down for this."

"Sure," Justin said with a nod as Alex stood up. "You can bring the chair -"

He cut off as Alex stepped around him and sat right down on his lap. "Okay," she said then. "Go on."

Justin blinked, then blushed. "Alex, I, uhh... this isn't appropriate," he said quickly, dropping his voice to a whisper.

Frowning with feigned innocence, Alex said, "What? It's just us, Justin. It's not like I've never sat in your lap before."

"Yeah, well... you weren't - I wasn't - we were kids then, Alex."

She tilted her head, and her body moved as well, keeping her balanced, and Justin swallowed, trying to concentrate on anything other than how his little sister's bottom was feeling against him. "Well, Mister I'm-So-Grown-Up, you're the one who likes to keep reminding me that I'm still a kid," she said then, grinning a little.

"_Alex_," Justin hissed, "_Get off me. You're in a _skirt_, for -_"

He cut himself off, leaving Alex wondering just what he'd been about to say, but she looked down, then back up at him, and said, "Oh. So I am. Well -"

Justin stood up then, his legs pushing the chair back as he rose, hands moving to Alex's waist and lifting her off of him so she didn't fall down on her butt. Taking her forearm, Justin led Alex to the freezer. She looked for Millie

Never one to let someone else control the situation, Alex sped up as they walked, moving herself into the lead, opened the freezer door, gestured Justin inside. He went, and she followed, then shut the door behind them with a click. Justin had already turned around, standing several feet away in the center of the freezer, his arms crossed and an angry look on his face.

"Okay," he said, before Alex could speak. "Tell me what's going on."


	7. Chapter 7

"Going on?" Alex echoed, giving Justin an innocent-and-puzzled look. "What makes you think -"

"I'm not completely clueless," Justin interrupted through gritted teeth. "The plan was for me to be attentive to you, and that would make Millie think I'd treat her nicely. Somewhere along the way, though, it seems to have changed to 'make Millie jealous of Alex,' and I'm wondering what I'm missing here."

_Oh Hell. Gotta think fast._ "I changed my mind. Millie's not good for you."

"What?" Justin gave his head a little shake, then looked at his sister incredulously. "She's cute, she's funny, she's nice, Mom and Dad like her, Max likes her... the only one who doesn't seem to like her is _you_. Heck, even _Harper_ hasn't said anything bad about her. So, tell me... what is the problem?"

"She's just using you!" Alex blurted out, her mouth outrunning her forebrain by miles. "She's got you babysitting her cousin so she can go out with other guys, and she's got you following her around and doing stuff for her, when you _should_ be doing stuff for me, and -"

"Wait - doing stuff for _you_?" Justin's voice was loud enough to be painful in the tiny space of the freezer. He took a step closer to Alex, getting into her face. "Is that what this is about? Are you _jealous_ that I might actually get a girlfriend again, Alex?"

"Jealous? No!" Alex shook her head quickly, then folded her arms and turned away from Justin, willing the blush she could feel rising away. "Why would I be jealous? I'm _trying_ to actually be a good sister and look out for you!" A heat was building up in her, and Alex suddenly found herself angry. Angry that Justin was yelling at her when she was only trying to help him, angry that he'd actually managed to make her feel embarrassed earlier. And most of all, although she couldn't admit it even to herself, angry that he was right, and she _was_ jealous.

With the anger came a sudden desire to hurt Justin, and she spun back around and pointed at him. "Just because _you_ can't see that a girl like that would never waste her time on you unless she wanted something from you," she said, lashing out at him with her voice, "that doesn't mean that _everyone_ is that blind!"

Justin stared at Alex, his jaw muscles visibly tightening, nostrils flaring, and she knew she'd pushed too far. But apologizing wasn't something that Alex Russo did. Instead, she said, "I heard her saying -"

"You know what? I don't care what you heard, or think you heard," Justin interrupted. "Thanks for thinking so little of me. Thanks for trying to sabotage me." He walked past her, to the door of the freezer, still talking. "And by the way, I'm not taking you to the movies." Grabbing the freezer handle with his hand, he finished, "Find some other sucker to do things for you."

Quickly, Alex snatched out her wand, said, "No! You're going to listen to me, Justin!" Pointing it at the door, she said, "_Nobody's leaving 'til I have my say, so just break that lock today!_" A ball of yellowish light leapt from the tip of Alex's wand to the door as Justin pulled the handle... and it didn't open.

Justin tried the handle again, automatically. Still, the door didn't open. Turning back around, he gritted his teeth, growled out an "Alex..." through them. "Fix the lock. Now."

"No," she said, folding her arms again. "Not until you really listen to me. If you want out before then, you'll have to fix it yourself." She grinned then, holding up her wand and waving it side-to-side. "Of course, I'll just keep breaking it," she taunted - and then she yelped and jumped backward as Justin took a quick step toward her, grabbing for her wand.

Holding it behind her, she gave him a hard look. "Hey! No wand-stealing!"

"You're the one who told me to fix it myself," Justin said, putting his arms out and hunkering down a little, obviously preparing for another grab. "My wand's upstairs, so the only way I can do that is to use yours."

"Oh, is it?" Alex grinned wickedly, then said, "_To keep my wand away from Justin, put it upstairs -_" Justin made a grab then, but Alex ducked under it, continuing, "_in my... dustbin!_" The wand flashed and disappeared, and Justin stared at Alex then, his mouth dropping open.

"You - the wand - the lock - gahhh - _Alex!_" He shook his head then, covering his face with his hands. "We're stuck in here until someone lets us out! That could be _hours!_ What were you _thinking?_"

"Well then," Alex said with a satisfied smile, "you should have plenty of time to listen to me."

"Listen to you? Why? Because you're acting like a crazy person?" Justin shook his head. "If I'd even been inclined to take your advice before, I'm certainly not now!"

Alex made a frustrated 'uhhh!', stomped her foot, then moved right up to Justin. He retreated, but she followed, going up on tiptoe to get in his face. "I heard her on the phone after you made the date with her yesterday, talking to some new boyfriend she's got! She made a date with him for Friday, told him she had a date already, but it was just a pity date and she could get out of it!"

Bringing up a fist, Alex thumped Justin's shoulder. "I was trying not to have to tell you that, to get her to stop being interested in you, but damn it Justin, you're too good for her! You're so damn _nice_, and you think everyone's nice, but they aren't! Millie's just a little bitch who's using you, and I'm not going to stand by and let her do it!"

She stopped then, staring at Justin, and Alex suddenly felt like screaming and crying at the same time. She could feel her lip trembling, and she blinked several times, hard, keeping the incipient tears back.

Justin, meanwhile, looked at his little sister as if seeing her for the first time. _She's telling the truth_, he realized. _She doesn't fake mad or upset. She wants everyone to think that she's calm and in control all the time._ He swallowed, closing his own eyes for a moment, then nodded. "I believe you," he said quietly. "Millie already broke our date for Friday earlier. She -"

He broke off, then slumped down, his back sliding against the smooth metal of the door until he was sitting on the cold floor. "You're right. I'm an idiot. I should have stopped pining after her months ago... as soon as she tricked me that first time." He lowered his head, rested it on his hands, elbows on his upraised knees. "I am the biggest damn idiot. I let everybody take advantage of me, all the time. God!"

"Justin... no." Alex got down on hands and knees in front of her brother, reached with one hand to touch his face. "You - you're not an idiot. You're the smartest guy I know. And you're wonderful. You're nice, and you're good, and... I don't want you to change. If you weren't nice to everybody, and didn't trust people, you wouldn't be _you_. And I like you."

She moved closer, hugged her brother loosely. "So... you keep being the nice guy, and I'll look out for you, and tell you if somebody's taking too much advantage. Deal?"

Taking his hands from his face, Justin looked at Alex. His face was streaked with tears, and it made her heart ache to see him like that, but he nodded. "Deal."

* * *

It was forty-eight minutes later when Theresa finally found them, then another hour and a half by the time a locksmith could be brought to fix the lock. (Justin had done the talking, through the door, and hadn't told them what had really happened, thereby earning another hug and a 'thank you' from Alex.)

When they finally got the door open, Justin and Alex were sitting on the floor, Alex sitting sideways in Justin's lap with his arms around her, keeping her warm. Theresa took them both upstairs to get warm and made them some hot soup.

The next morning, Justin awoke, got out of bed, stretched quickly. Halfway to his closet, he noticed something on his desk, moved over and picked up the envelope, frowned at it. A lavender envelope was there, with nothing written on the outside. Picking up his letter-opener, he broke the seal, opened the flap, then carefully slid out the card inside. The front showed a cartoon puppy sticking its thumbs in its ears and blowing a raspberry, and said, "Brother, If You Were Expecting a Sappy Valentine's Card..."

He flipped it open, and inside, the same puppy was now holding up a big heart, with "You Were Right! Love you!" under it. On the inside flap was written:

_You are the nicest, sweetest,_

_most wonderful guy I know._

_Don't ever change._

_I don't say it, but I love you._

_If you show anyone this card, I will kill you._

_Alex_

* * *

Justin quit babysitting for Millie, and never did make another date with her. She also suddenly developed a very bad case of acne, which lasted until she quit working at the Sub Station. If Justin suspected that Alex had something to do with that (which he did), he never said a word.

Oh, and he did take Alex to see _The Valentine Killer._

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hope you've enjoyed the "pre-Jalex" stuff so far - it's been fun to write, since I get to play with showing that they're falling in love without letting them cross the line into couplehood!

I'm not sure yet if the next chapter will be the last Valentine's Day before they get together, or first one after they do... if you have a preference, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

February 13, 2010

Alex Russo looked at Dean Moriarty in disbelief. "This?" she asked, holding her right hand up. "This is your idea of a Valentine's Day present? Really?"

"Hey - that's good work there." Dean nodded toward her hand, which was holding a pair of bookends. "I got an A for those."

"Yeeeaaaah…." Alex looked at them again. They were pretty, sure - polished, stained a dark brown, lacquered. But…. "I thought you were going to stop giving me stuff you made in shop as presents?"

"That's not all there is, though," Dean said then, ignoring the question. He turned his head, said, "Estevez. Give Russo her other presents."

One of Dean's crew stepped forward, holding out a rectangular candy box about as big as Alex's hands put together, and a small bouquet. Not of roses, but of mixed wildflowers, several of them already wilting badly. Alex looked at it with mild distaste, then gave Estevez an obviously faked smile. "Thanks," she said, without taking them, then took Dean by the arm and started to pull him along.

He didn't move, just looked at her hand, then at her, frowning in confusion. Alex sighed. "Can we talk over here for a minute?"

"Sure. Over here, people," he said, jerking his head as he began to walk. The crew nodded as a group and began to follow, and Alex rolled her eyes. "Just _us_. You and me."

"Oh, sure." Dean held up a hand, said, "Guys, hang back." More nods answered, and the crew withdrew a bit.

_Why the heck did he bring them in the first place? When Dean asked me out for ice cream, I didn't think he'd be bringing the whole crew. _Aloud, she said, "Really, Dean? This is your idea of a Valentine's date?"

Dean lowered his head, took Alex's hands. She smiled a little at that. "Come on, Russo. You know I've gotta be outta town tomorrow. An' with all the money I've been puttin' into the car, I didn't have much money to get you anything." He brought a hand up, gave Alex's chin a little push with his thumb and forefinger as he smiled at her. "You know I'd get you somethin' better if I could."

"Yeah, well…." Alex took a step back and folder her arms, tilted her head toward the crew. "What about them?"

Dean frowned. "What about them?"

Rolling her eyes, Alex said, "Why did you have to bring them? I wanted to spend time with _you_, not with the whole gang. And really - what was that with the candy and flowers?" She unfolded her arms to throw her hands up in the air, saying, "You couldn't hand them to my yourself? You've got to have someone else do it?"

"Eyyy… don't be like that." Dean gave her a hurt look. "I wanted to spend some time with the guys too, before I left town. And there's only so many hours in the day, you know?"

"And you can't reserve a few of them for just me? For Valentine's Day?" Alex shook her head, then held her hands up, palm out. "You know what? Date's over. I'll see you later."

She walked away then, ignoring Dean's call of "Russo!" He called again, saying "You forgot your flowers and candy!" then started after her, but Alex ducked around a corner, and by the time Dean got there, she'd vanished.

* * *

Three blocks away, Alex was fuming, walking quickly with her upper lip pulled up in a snarl. Dean was a nice enough guy, and cute, and funny sometimes - but he didn't seem to have a romantic bone in his body. You'd think his guys would help him out, maybe say something to let him know that giving _bookends_ to his famous-for-hating-books girlfriend might not be the best idea.

And if he was set on giving her something this lame, he could have at least given her some kind of stupidly romantic line to go with it. "They're a matched set, just like us," say. Or maybe, "They support things, like I always want to support you." That would've at least made it a _little_ better.

Well, after this performance, Dean wasn't going to get off easily. _Not that there's any getting off happening anyway._ That was another thing - it'd been her idea to take things slow, sure, and at first she'd thought that Dean was being really nice and going along with it - but now they'd been dating off and on for well over a year, and he _still_ hadn't made any moves. _At least Riley kept trying to grope my boobs. Dean's supposed to be a bit of a player - he had that whole Dean's corner thing. _Why_ hasn't he made any moves? _She frowned deeply, wondering, _Does he have some other girl on the side or something? He'd better not -_

Alex's phone made a two-tone ding, and she pulled it out, looked at it.

_Sry u didn't like prsents. still on 4 nxt sat?_

Alex stared at the message for a moment, then shook her head. How stupid could he be? Did Dean really think _now_ was a good time to ask her about their date next weekend? Quickly, she texted back a simple '_No_'. A moment later, her phone started buzzing again, this time with Dean calling. She stuck it back into her purse.

_No. Not talking to you right now. Not until I'm in a better mood. _Turning the corner, Alex saw the Sub Station ahead, and then she grinned. _And I know just how to get into a better mood..._

* * *

"Hey there." Alex let the door swing closed behind her, set her purse down, then moved to the couch, leaned across the back of it, over Justin's shoulder, and pointed to the right. "You see that thing over there?"

"What?" Justin turned to look, and Alex grabbed the remote from his lap, then jumped away as she changed the channel.

Justin simply rolled his eyes, then turned and looked at Alex. The two of them simply stared at each other for a few seconds, until Alex made a frustrated growl. "Oh, it's no fun if you don't fight me for it!"

She raised her hand to throw the remote at him, but Justin grinned, then suddenly jumped over the back of the couch and grabbed for it, prompting a squeal from Alex as she jumped away. Grinning, he went down into a low stance, arms out, then shifted side-to-side. Alex faked toward the stairs, but Justin was ready for that: he started to follow, then turned as she did and lunged toward her, prompting another squeal as she jumped toward the kitchen, then ran around the other side of the kitchen island.

"You know I'm faster than you," Justin said, again dropping down into his prepared stance.

"Yeah? Well..." Alex took off running, as fast as she could, managed to get to the couch and throw herself onto it, yelling, "Base!" as she did.

Then Justin was on top of her, putting one arm under her to grab her shoulder and keep her from getting away again. "Can't declare a base once we've started," he said chidingly.

"Ahh!" Alex put the remote under her, holding on tightly with her right hand. Justin's right went under her as well, seeking for it, and she thrashed, trying to get out from under him, but he was bigger, stronger, and heavier, and Alex was getting nowhere.

So she did what any girl in her position would. Twisting, she reached with her left arm, got it against Justin's side, and began to tickle. Immediately, he started to squirm - and then he moved his arms, began to tickle her sides in return. "Hey, hey, ah!" Alex wriggled, and both of them fell off the couch onto the floor.

As they slipped off, Justin immediately tried to roll, bringing them so he landed on the bottom, not wanting to hurt Alex. She repaid him by turning over and scrambling up onto him. She mounted his stomach, pinning one arm to his side with her leg, reaching to tickle that side. Justin tried to curl that way, protecting that side, and Alex went for his armpit, grinned as she put her fingers there, knowing she had Justin now.

Sure enough, in moments he was laughing and squirming under her, and Alex was taunting him, saying, "Got you now! Think you can pin _me_, huh?" while beside them, the remote lay on the couch, forgotten.

Justin tried to bring his arms up to push Alex's away, but he was laughing too hard now, and she could move down to his sides, which were almost as ticklish. Gritting his teeth, Justin did his best to stop laughing, then grabbed onto Alex's sides and began to tickle her in return. His effort was rewarded as she yelped and tried to pull back.

She started to stand up off of him, and Justin moved quickly, grabbing Alex as she tried to turn around to get away from him. "Who's got who?" he asked, wrapping his left arm around her waist, sliding his other hand under the hem of her shirt to begin tickling her belly.

"Nooo!" Alex called out, squirming, but it was a happy sound, and she started laughing almost immediately. "No fair!" she got out after a second, "No tickling under clothes!"

"All's fair in love and war," Justin responded, grinning again now that he had the advantage. Looking for a way out of his grip, Alex tried dropping down, putting her arms up.

She expected this tactic to get her free, but hadn't thought about the fact that the last time she'd tried it, she'd been two years younger, and not quite so… developed. Compounding things, the shoes she'd worn on her date had slick soles, and her feet slid forward suddenly as she tried to drop.

Alex also hadn't thought about where Justin's hand was, and the result was that her shirt was suddenly pulled up, exposing her bra, and Justin found his arm against his sister's breasts, his left hand cupping her on the right side. He blushed immediately, saying, "I -" and starting to let go.

"Don't drop me!" Alex cried out then, putting her arms over Justin's as she tried to get her feet back under her. Justin blinked, then moved his right arm down, looking for something he could grab onto to pull her up. His hand found purchase, and he pulled up, got Alex onto her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked then, not letting go yet.

Alex nodded. "Yeah," she said after a moment, and then she blushed as well, said, "Umm... you can let go now." It was only then that Justin realized where his hand had found purchase, and he let go of his sister's torso and her inner thigh at the same time, blushing an even deeper red than before.

Quickly, Alex pulled her shirt back down - and then she turned to Justin, grinned, and said, "Well, looks like I won that one."

"You - wait, what?" Justin shook his head, said, "I had you there, and you know it!"

With a twinkle in her eye, Alex said, "Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But there's something you missed."

Crossing his arms, Justin said, "Well, maybe I missed something... or maybe you missed something." His grin grew a little, and he said, "Maybe you should go up to your room and check."

"My room? My - what did you do!" Alex took a step forward, glaring at her brother, but he just kept grinning and shook his head.

"You'll have to see. You might want to hurry, though."

They watched each other for three ticks of the wall clock, Justin's grey-green eyes meeting Alex's brown, and then Alex took off up the stairs, running for her room.


	9. Chapter 9

Justin smiled as he watched Alex run up the stairs. For a few moments after she disappeared from sight, he kept his eyes on the top of the stairs - and then grinned when he heard a faint cry of glee.

Still smiling, he did a slow turn, looking around the room - then saw Alex's purse, sitting on the floor by the door. With his usual compulsion to keep things neat, Justin walked to it, picked it up (dangling it by the strap in the approved manner of men everywhere who wish to make it clear that the purse they are holding is not _their_ purse)... and then frowned as he saw the pair of bookends that had been sitting behind it.

_Bookends? What would Alex be doing with - oh._ Quickly, Justin put Alex's purse back where it had been, once again concealing the bookends, then moved over to the kitchen stools to wait for her to come back down.

* * *

When Alex threw open the door to her room and stepped in, she immediately stopped and blinked in shock. Sitting on her desk was an ornate vase with what must have been two dozen roses, in a mix of white, pink, and red; a heart-shaped candy box a full foot across; a new teddy bear (white with a red bow tie); a half-dozen or so balloons, tied to a heart-shaped weight that was keeping them down... and, in front of all that, an envelope with _Alex_ written on it in Justin's careful cursive.

She let out a noise and ran to her desk, picked up the envelope and ripped it open. She was a bit surprised to find in it, not the expected card, but a letter.

_Alex,_

_I know the last couple of years I've just gotten you a card, so this may be a bit unexpected, but I was thinking about things, and realized that next year, I'll be off at college, and Valentine's will be on a Monday, so I might not be able to come home and keep up the tradition. In fact, it'll be on a weekday every time for my first four years of college, so... I kind of thought I'd do something big this time._

Alex swallowed and blinked at that. She didn't like to think about Justin being gone next year, and the implication that he might not come home much... _Well, if he doesn't, I'll just have to go visit him. He may not be willing to teleport around without permission, but _I_ am. And besides, I'm sure Mom and Dad'll give him permission to do that whenever he wants, to come home to visit. They'd _better.

_Since Dean's going to be out of town on Valentine's Day itself, I'm hoping you'd be willing to spend the day with me. There's a few things taped inside the envelope you might find interesting in that regard._

She shook her head at that. '_In that regard?' Really? Who talks like that?_ As she did so, though, she was already picking up the envelope again and looking inside it, then smiling as she saw that he'd taped other things inside. _Clever. He knew if they came out with the letter, I'd look at them first._

Pulling them out, she found several tickets, and looked them over for a minute before going back to the letter. _Roller coasters? But Justin hates - _

Alex picked the letter back up, looked at it, made a face as she realized she hadn't read even half of it yet. _Okay, too much reading. _Setting the letter back down, she opened the candy box, looked at the map of what was what inside the lid until she found a caramel-filled one, popped it into her mouth, then closed the box again and left the room.

* * *

Down below, Justin was fidgeting. Her first noise had sounded happy, but he hadn't heard anything else, and it had been a few minutes now... was she hiding up there because she didn't want to have to tell him no? He'd thought that Alex would want to go, but he might have misjudged... _Maybe it's all just wishful thinking. Yeah. She's getting too old to care about her brother liking her,_ he thought bitterly.

Things had been seeming tense between them for about half a year now, and Justin wasn't sure why. He knew that coming out and asking Alex about it wouldn't help anything - if she wanted someone to know something, she told them, and if she didn't want them to know, dragging anything out of her was next to impossible.

Last Valentine's Day, when she'd told him about what Millie was really like, it had seemed like Alex really wanted him to be happy. And she'd been helpful before that too, with Miranda... but since then, it seemed like she was taking a positive joy in sabotaging any relationship he tried to have.

Okay, the thing with the werewolf girl, Isabella, hadn't really been her fault... but she hadn't like Isabella from the start, even before she'd wound up turning him into a werewolf. (And he still wasn't sure if their dad either had never really studied monsters, or if he was just helping Justin to cover. Either way, he hadn't told anyone that the whole thing about a werewolf's kiss being able to turn someone into a werewolf was a lie, and Justin was glad of that.) After he'd wound up as a werewolf, Alex had been outright delighted about it.

The centaur... okay, even Justin had to admit that if the shoe had been on the other foot, he would have been laughing about that one. But Alex had been all over that girl Rachel from their school, picking on her as badly as she did Justin, and he was pretty sure that was a big part of why Rachel had broken up with him after just a few weeks.

Not last, and hardly least, when Justin and Harper had discovered their mutual love of silent movies, Alex had to go and get in the way of that, even though they weren't really dating. Okay, maybe Harper was starting to think they were, but he was pretty sure that was Alex's fault - she'd actually seemed to be getting over her crush before that, but it was back as bad as ever now.

At times, it seemed like he was dealing with two different Alexes - one who delighted in torturing him, and another who... well, he really wasn't sure what to make of the other one. She'd hug him, cry on his shoulder, lean on him on the couch - sometimes it seemed like she was treating him like a boyfriend, but...

Justin shook his head a little and smiled lopsidedly. _She deserves better than Dean. He's not thoughtful enough, not smart enough. And I don't like his reputation._ _He -_

"Roller coasters?" Alex asked then, and Justin blinked. She was almost all the way down the stairs, and he'd been so lost in thought he hadn't even noticed her coming down. _Which is really lost in though, because - wow._ Alex had dressed up for her date with Dean, and while Justin hadn't really noticed it while they were wrestling, he was definitely noticing now. _She's beautiful in that. _Part of his mind immediately answered, _Or out of it_, and it took an effort to push the thought away.

"Yeah," he said out loud, shrugging and giving Alex a little smile. "I know you love them. And I know you love seeing me scared, so, it seemed like a natural fit."

She stopped on the step just above the floor, her eyes on a level with Justin's there. He slipped from the stool, walked to her, placed his hand on top of hers, which was on the railing. Justin's hand was warm and strong, and bigger than Alex's, covering hers completely, and suddenly she started to feel a little blushy.

Then Justin made a slight bow, and the urge to blush grew stronger as he said, "So... would you do me the honor of accompanying me tomorrow?"

Alex took her hand out from under his, waved it off-handedly. "Oh... sure. It's not like I was doing anything anyway."

* * *

**Author's Note:** The AGP-verse is, of course, an AU of the show's universe... mainly because I started writing these stories about halfway through Season 2, and had no way of knowing what was going to happen in the rest of that season and in 3 and 4.

I try to keep it as compatible with the show's universe as much as I can, but there are some things I've established that contradict the show - for example, that Dean and Alex were still dating in Justin's senior year. I also feel free to contradict things that I just plain don't like, and have indulged that here with the bit about Justin lying about being turned into a werewolf by a kiss.

How did Justin really wind up being a werewolf in the AGP-verse? Well, maybe I'll get around to telling that story someday...


	10. Chapter 10

Justin opened the door to his sister's room, stepped in, then closed the door carefully, turning the doorknob to avoid making any sound. He knew she wouldn't be awake yet - not at ten on a Sunday morning - and he shouldn't be in here.

Where he should have been was downstairs working in the Sub Station, as he'd agreed to take the morning shift so he could take Alex out that afternoon. Instead, however, he'd slipped up here, ostensibly going to the bathroom, but really….

_She looks so innocent when she's asleep._ Alex was turned on her side, facing toward the door, one arm out from under the covers, stretched forward with her fingers dangling over the edge. She slept on her right side, like she always had, and she had one of her pillows behind her back, supporting her. Justin brought a hand up, put the tips of his fingers under a strand of hair that had fallen across Alex's face. Carefully, he lifted it and pushed it back where it wouldn't fall again.

_I can't believe I'm leaving in three months. It won't be far, but…._ Justin stopped his thoughts there, swallowing and shaking his head a little. Even as he tried not to think about what it would be like not to see Alex every day, not to fight with her over the TV remote, not to have her wheedling him into making her popcorn, or getting her a soda. Not to have her lay up against him on the couch, her head on his shoulder - _no. I'm not thinking about this._

Justin realized then that he'd crouched down beside Alex's bed, moving to where he had a better view of his little sister's face. He could see that her eyes were moving back and forth under her eyelids, and he smiled a little. _REM sleep._ Knowing she'd be hard to wake up in that stage, Justin let himself put his hand on top of Alex's, glancing at her clock as he did.

_Two minutes. Then I'll head back downstairs, before anybody comes looking for me._ Without realizing he was doing it, Justin smiled a little, looking at Alex's beautiful face, wondering what she was dreaming.

* * *

The carnival was a blur of motion, color, and light. Alex was laughing, one arm trailing behind her as she quickly weaved through the crowd, holding on to Dean's hand. Then they were on the tilt-a-whirl, Alex crying out joyously as she put her arms up into the air. Dean put one arm around her waist, helping keep her in place.

And then they were on the Ferris wheel, looking out over the carnival. Dean was pointing at something, talking about how high the reverse bungee was doing, saying they needed to do that next.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?" Alex asked, and Dean looked at her, then shook his head.

"No, Russo," he said, then gestured to the other side of her. "That's what he's here for."

"What?" Alex blinked at Dean in disbelief, then turned around. A moment ago, the seat had only been big enough for the two of them, but now it was big enough for three, and there on the other side of her was Justin, smiling at her and holding a single red rose.

He put it into her hand, his other arm sliding around her, and Alex stared up into her brother's grey-green eyes. She'd seen them many times before, of course, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen them so close, looked into them for so long, and she found herself swallowing. "You're going to -" she started, but Justin interrupted.

"I love you," he said, and Alex tried to swallow again, but her mouth was dry, and - and then Justin moved closer, and his lips were on hers, and Alex gasped, her whole body suddenly tingling -

Alex found herself blinking at her clock. It was blaring out "Bad Romance," and Alex reached and hit the button automatically, then lay back down. _Stupid thing. I need a clock that knows when it's the weekend._

She closed her eyes, then opened them again as the dream came back to her. _That was - that was weird. Why would I be…._ Alex sat up again then. _Oh, right. Justin's taking me out today. That must be it - I was dreaming about Dean, then my brain remember the thing with Justin, and it just got everything mixed up. Yeah._

And that was why she'd set the alarm, she realized as well - she wanted to be ready, and -

The door opened, and their mother came in, carrying a basket of laundry. "Oh, you're up already. Good." Theresa shot Alex a smile as she set the basket atop her daughter's dresser. Taking a stack out of it, she set it there. "You know, it's a very nice thing your brother is doing for you. He spent a lot of money for those tickets."

Alex slid out of the bed, came over and started looking through the stack. Her mother said, "It's funny, the two of you going out together for Valentine's Day."

"A -" Shaking her head quickly, Alex, said, "No. No, Mom, it's not -"

With a teasing grin, Theresa winked at her daughter, said, "Oh, you don't have to lie to your mother. I know how excited you are about this."

"I'm not excited," Alex said quickly. "Why would I be excited? I mean, sure, it's nice of Justin to do this, but it's not like it's a… a date or something!"

"Mija…." Theresa moved to her daughter, gave her a tight hug. "It's all right. I understand what you're feeling." Theresa added a squeeze to the hug, let go and stepped back, then smiled wistfully. "I remember my first date with your father. We -"

Alex looked at her mother, wide-eyed. _She is not seriously comparing Justin and me to Dad and her. Because… no. Just no._

But Theresa was still speaking, saying, "Oh, that reminds me. Mija, I know where this kind of thing can lead, and I want you to take this." She reached into a pocket, said, "And don't mention this to your father, all right?" as she pulled out a condom and held it out to Alex.

"_Mom!_" Alex jumped back, staring in disbelief… and then found herself sitting up suddenly, looking at her blaring alarm clock.

_Oh thank God, that was just a dream. _Alex put her hands up and let her head drop down, resting on them. _That was like when she didn't know Justin was my brother and said he'd be a good catch. Times _twenty.

Throwing back the covers, Alex turned off the alarm as she stood up, then froze as her mother opened the door. "Oh, you're already up. Good." Alex stared in horrified fascination as her mother carried the laundry basket to the dresser, set it down to take out a stack of Alex's clothes. "You need to be nice to your brother today," she said. "I know you love to tease him, but he's spent a lot of money on those tickets. There aren't a lot of brothers who are that considerate."

"I'll be nice," Alex said, picking out a top from the stack as Theresa picked up the basket and started back out. She waited until the door had closed completely, then said, "But there's no way I'm kissing him." _And I'm definitely not - no, no, no. Don't even think that. You don't have that much brain bleach handy._

* * *

Downstairs, Justin was pacing. _Okay, calm down. Mom said she was awake, you heard the shower running. She'll be down any minute. And it's not like the tickets are for a particular time. There's no reason to be getting impatient._

And he had to be impatient. That had to be it, because he couldn't possibly be _nervous_ about a day out with Alex. It wasn't like it was a _date_. Right?

Justin chuckled then, shaking his head a little and cracking a smile. Of course not. Besides, Alex would probably treat the whole thing as a joke anyway, teasing him all day, making him buy her stuff, making -

He looked up as he heard footsteps on the metal of the stairs. Alex was coming down, wearing a knee-length purple skirt over heavy black leggings and a long-sleeved black shirt with a purple peace-sign tank-top over it. Her hair bounced a bit as she took each step, and she shot Justin a smile, looked him up and down.

"Wow," she said then. "I see you've managed to make it where I won't be embarrassed to be seen with you. Good job."

Justin rolled his eyes a little, but smiled, happy that Alex seemed happy. "Well, I thought about wearing my Captain Jim-Bob shirt, but I decided I'd spare you that."

"Well, thanks for that." Alex stopped at the bottom of the stairs, in front of Justin, then held up the envelope with the tickets. "So…." she started, then stopped as Justin took the envelope from her hand, put it in his jacket pocket - and then took her hand in his. For a moment, she simply stared down at his hand, holding hers.

She looked away quickly then, feeling a bit of a blush rising. _Stop that! Whatever you might have been dreaming, it's just Justin!_

"All ready?" he asked, and Alex turned back to him, nodded. "Okay. Here we go, then," he said, and they flashed out.


	11. Chapter 11

"You know, you are just like a little kid sometimes. I don't know how you can eat that like that." Justin shook his head and frowned a little at his sister, but Alex just grinned back at him, tore another piece of cotton candy off the stick, then stuck it into her mouth.

"Because it's _fun_," she said to him. "I know you know what fun is. I mean, it's what you're taking me out for today. A day of fun. Right?" Justin was fighting hard to keep the frown on, Alex could see, and she slowly pulled a long, pink strip of off, waiting for him to say something, knowing Justin couldn't stay silent for long with an argument hanging.

He took a deep breath, opened his mouth - and Alex immediately stuck the cotton candy into it, went up on tiptoe and grabbed him by the back of the head and the jaw, then held them shut, giggling as she did. "Okay, now you _have_ to eat it!" she said, eyes twinkling as she looked into her brother's wide-eyed expression. "Come on - it's not going to kill you..."

Justin struggled a bit more, and people around them were starting to look, but Alex didn't care about that. She hung on determinedly, her face just a few inches in front of Justin's, looking into his grey-green eyes as he made noise. It was something like 'an ew', and after a moment, Alex got it.

"You don't _need_ to chew it, Justin. It's cotton candy. Just let it melt and swallow. Work it with your tongue. You do know how to use your tongue, don't you?" _Ohmygod, what did I just say?_ Well, there was no unsaying it - at least, not without a spell, and Alex couldn't exactly grab her wand while holding onto Justin like this.

She saw him swallow, then glare at her, and she grinned and let go, stepped back, then held the cotton candy out to him. "Okay, now that you've had one piece, you might as well have another. I can't eat this whole thing by myself."

"Oh, I see. This is you being nice and sharing, huh?" Justin shook his head, his mouth twisting, and Alex knew he was fighting down a laugh.

"Yes," she said, giving him a bright smile, and then Justin shook his head more fully, sighed, then reached and ripped off a strip of the blue, put it into his mouth.

"Fine," he said then. "If it'll keep you from assaulting me again. So... what do you want to do next?"

"I wanna go to the log ride," Alex said, taking Justin's hand and starting to pull him along.

"Wait, no," Justin said, following along even as he argued. "We're not dressed for it. That's too nice for you to get wet..."

Alex stopped and turned to look at her brother, grinning a little. "Did you just say I look nice?"

"What?" Justin stopped as well, frowning at Alex. "No, I -" He stopped then, realizing the trap he was falling into as Alex tilted her head to the side and frowned.

"So I _don't_ look nice?" she said, and even Justin knew enough about women to recognize the danger in her tone.

"Alex," Justin stalled, arranging his words ahead of time like an army engineer planning his route through a minefield, "you look very nice, just as you always do. But I know that outfit is new, and if you get it wet, it -"

"Duh," Alex said, cuffing Justin playfully on the side of the head. "That's why we'll use a waterproofing spell."

"I don't know," Justin said, frowning. "We're not supposed to -" He paused and looked around, making sure no one was listening, then said, "do _that_ without permission."

"Do what?" Alex asked innocently.

Justin frowned more, then looked around again before hissing out, "You _know_ what. Come on, Alex, please. Don't fight me on this. I'm trying to make this a fun day."

_Oh, and you are, _Alex thought, still smiling at Justin. _It's just that our ideas of what's fun differ a little._ "So... we can't do you-know-what?" Justin smiled relievedly and nodded, until Alex added, "Even if that thing happens?"

Justin turned his head a little, then frowned at Alex again. "What thing?"

"That thing. You know -" Alex made a vague circular motion with her free hand, said, "That _thing_. The one we can't talk about."

His expression clearly indicating that he had no idea what Alex meant, Justin carefully said, "No, I don't know, Alex. What thing?"

Rolling her eyes, Alex gestured for Justin to come closer. He did, and she stretched up on tiptoe, moving to whisper into his ear - and then licked his earlobe messily. Justin jumped away from her, right into the ropes holding up a tent, just as Alex had planned, and she laughed so hard she chortled, pointing at him.

"_Alex_," he let out angrily as he stood up, and she laughed again, then broke into a run.

Shaking his head, Justin fought down a grin as he wiped at his ear. _That was... different._ Alex had always teased him, of course, but lately it seemed like she was teasing him more, in ways that she never had before. Almost like...

_Like a girl teasing her boyfriend. _Justin blinked at that, then shook his head. No. That didn't make any sense. Alex couldn't possibly -

"Hey!" Alex yanked on Justin's sleeve, interrupting his thoughts, and he turned and looked, saw her glaring at him angrily. "When I run away, you're supposed to chase me!"

"Oh, is that how it works?" Justin asked, faking an innocent look. He put his thumb to his chin, cocking his head to the side as he did. "I had not realized that," he said, and Alex growled, then stepped forward to push him with both hands. Justin dodged to the side, grinning, then tried to grab Alex, putting both arms around her. She turned partly sideways and pushed him, hard, and Justin tried to step back, but his foot caught on Alex's, and both of them fell.

Instinctively, Justin pulled Alex to him, trying to cushion her with his body before they hit the -

* * *

Justin blinked as a light shone into his eyes. He closed them tightly, but the light was still there, shining redly through his eyelids. Grimacing, he tried to bring his hand up in front of his face, but then there was a weight on him and arms around him, pinning his arms to his sides.

"Okay, miss," a voice said, "I know you're glad your boyfriend's waking up, but you've got to let us look at him."

_Boyfriend? _The light went away, and the voice said, "Mister Russo, can you hear me? If you can't speak, blink twice for yes."

"I... I can hear you," Justin got out, opening his eyes. Everything was blurry. He was on his back, in a brightly-lit room with pale green walls, and a man wearing something that was also pale green - scrubs? - was sitting beside him. Someone was holding his right hand very tightly, and he looked to that side, saw a feminine shape with dark hair. "What happened?" he asked.

"You fell and hit your head," the man said. "You've been out for about three minutes is all. Thankfully, you weren't far from our first aid station here."

"Are you okay?" Justin asked as he tried to sit up, but a hand pushed him back down. "Whoa there," the voice said, and Justin chuckled as that brought Mr. Laritate to mind. "Your girlfriend is just fine."

"Oh... okay, good." Justin blinked a couple of times, and things came more into focus, revealing to him that the shape was indeed Alex, and not Miranda, as he'd first thought. _And why would I think that? We've been broken up for two years._ He shook his head, then winced a little.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked immediately, moving closer to him. "Oh, Justin - I'm sorry," she said, and he could see that she'd been crying. "Please be okay."

Justin squeezed Alex's hand, said, "I'm okay. Head hurts, but I'm okay."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that," the man said. "Now, if you'll look at me for a minute, I'm going to make sure your pupils are responding properly..."

* * *

It was more than an hour before they were out of there, with Justin holding an icepack to his head, and Alex clinging to his arm like she was afraid he might blow away. "Let's go home," she said, and Justin frowned at her.

"I thought you wanted to do the log ride?"

"With you holding an icepack to your head? Yeah… no. We can come back another day," Alex said. "I want you to be okay. You had me scared there." She pulled him to the right, toward a path that led to a set of restrooms, looked around, then said, "Please. Just take us home. We'll finish it another day, okay?"

Justin looked into Alex's eyes, saw the worry there, and knew he couldn't argue with her. "Okay," he said, then pulled out his wand, held it up. "_This day isn't what it was supposed to have been, so please take us home again._"

Nothing happened. No light on the tip of the wand, nothing. Justin frowned, then tried again. "_We're done with being out today, take us home right away._"

Again, nothing happened. Alex bit her lip, then pulled out her own wand, shook it. It didn't light up either, and she put it back away, then pulled out her cell phone.

Feeling a little dizzy, Justin stepped away and sat down on a bench, watched as Alex dialed and put the phone to her ear. "Mom? Can you get Dad? We're trying to come home, but it's not working." There was about half a minute's silence while Alex waited, and then she said, "Dad? Justin tried to get us home, but it's not working, and when I took out my - oh. Okay, uhh... let me give you to Justin."

She came over to him, carrying the phone. Justin took it, frowning at Alex, but she just gestured to the phone. "Yeah, Dad?"

"Justin, they're having problems at the magic power plant again. I was hoping they'd get the dragons back before you two were done, but it looks like it may be a while yet. Do you have money for a hotel room?"

"Yeah," Justin said, nodding. "But we have school in the morning..."

"If it's not back on in time, I'll call the school. Don't worry about that. You just take care of Alex, okay?"

"Okay," Justin said, nodding.

"All right. Call me if you need to. Bye."

"Bye," Justin echoed, then hung up the phone and handed it back to Alex, who was looking at him expectantly.

"Um, well…." he said then, "the dragons got loose at the power plant again, it sounds like. Could be hours before things are back. So… it looks like we're going to be sleeping in a hotel tonight."


	12. Chapter 12

"You couldn't have found a _nicer_ hotel?"

Justin rolled his eyes at Alex's question as he gave their cabbie a tip. "Amazingly enough, there _is_ a limit to how much money I have on me, Alex. This is what I can afford, after the cab and leaving money for dinner."

"Remind me not to spend so much of your money next time we're going to be stranded," Alex replied, looking doubtfully over the weathered single-story place as she did.

The cab driver gave Justin a sympathetic look, quietly said, "I feel for ya, kid. My first wife was the same way. But hey, at least you've got a looker there, eh?" He give Justin a wink and a grin, and said, "Have a happy Valentine's tonight, if ya know what I mean!" as he rolled up his window and drove away.

"What did he say?" Alex asked, turning to look at Justin.

"Oh, um, he, uh, he just wished us a happy Valentine's." Justin could feel the blush rising on his cheeks, felt it grow hotter as Alex grinned at him.

"Oh, I see… he thought we were a _couple_, is that it? Well…." Alex grabbed onto Justin's hand and started forward, leading him into the motel's office. "Hello!" she said brightly to the bored-looking girl behind the counter. "We're the Russos. My husband called you a few minutes ago about getting a room here." She pulled Justin up next to her, then turned to look at her blushing brother.

Much to Justin's relief, the girl didn't even look up as she put down the Sudoku puzzle she'd been working on and moved over to the terminal there. She poked at it for a moment, then said, "Yeah. You're lucky - this is the last room we have left tonight. Lot of people visiting the park this weekend. It'll be seventy dollars for the night."

"Pay the girl, honey," Alex said, and Justin had to fight not to give her a dirty look as he opened his wallet. He laid the money down on the counter, wishing he'd brought his debit card. _Figured I'd limit how much Alex could get me to spend that way. Well… it's a good thing I'd bought the tickets in advance, or I don't know where we'd be sleeping._

"You'll be in room twenty-nine," the girl was saying, finally actually looking up as she pushed the key cards over toward them. "It's around to the left, toward the back. There's soda and snack machines down the walkway there. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Do you have toothbrushes, by any chance?" Justin asked. "Our, uh… our car broke down at the park, and we weren't planning on having to stay overnight." The girl nodded, squatted down behind the counter, then came out a moment later with two toothbrushes and a hair brush, all wrapped in sanitary plastic.

"Thanks," Justin said with a smile, and then Alex was tugging on his arm again, pulling him toward the door.

* * *

Alex stopped about three feet inside the door of their room and made a face as she looked around. The walls were covered with tan wallpaper that had seen better days. _Heck, it's probably seen better decades._ "Well," she said, her gaze crossing the dark brown carpet (all the better to hide the stains), "I see it's not any nicer" - _bed doesn't look too bad, hope it isn't too firm -_ "on the insi -"

"Hmm?" Justin went as he turned to look at Alex from the bathroom area, where he'd turned on the light and set down their toiletries. Alex stared at the bed for a moment, then gave Justin an accusing look.

"There's only one bed. Why is there only one bed?"

"I don't know," Justin replied. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that someone decided to pretend we're married?" Alex frowned, and Justin sighed, then shook his head. "She said this was the last room they had," he said then. "It's not your fault. I'll sleep on the floor."

He said it simply, with no special emphasis, and Alex blinked, then bit her lip. "No… you're hurt. I can….." Alex trailed off, and Justin smiled a little, walked over to his little sister, stroked her hair with his hand.

"Alex… no. It's okay. I'm the big brother here, so I take the floor." She opened her mouth again, and he smiled and shook his head. "No. We're not arguing about this."

"But -" Shaking his head again, Justin cut Alex off by putting his finger on the tip of her nose.

"No. The only way I'm sleeping in that bed is if you're in it too." Justin and Alex both blinked at that, and then Justin blushed again. "You know what I mean," he said hurriedly, then moved away from her, over to the phone. "Find something on TV. I'm going to see what we can get for food that's in walking distance or delivers."

As Justin picked up the "Restaurants and Entertainment" folder from the tiny desk, Alex sat down on the bed and took the remote, then turned on the TV, started flipping channels. Her eyes kept straying back toward her brother, though, and Alex found herself looking him up and down.

_We _could_ both sleep in it. It's big enough. And it's not like we haven't before…. And besides, I can just wear my pajamas, so it'd be like when we slept in our clothes in the jungle, and -_ Alex blinked then as she suddenly realized that she didn't _have_ her pajamas. And she couldn't magic any up. _Okay, no. Sleeping in our clothes in the bed would just be weird. And sleeping together in our underwear…._

Alex suddenly pictured Justin in his underwear… and then pictured them in bed, the way they used to sleep together as kids, spooned together with Justin's arms around her, and she had to turn to make herself look away from her brother as she felt the heat rise on her face. _Bad brain, don't go there. Quit picturing Justin in his underwear!_

She turned over onto her side, facing completely away from Justin now, and bit her lip as she stared through the TV, trying to clear her mind. _Think of something else… think of… Dad laying on the couch and watching wrestling. _Alex closed her eyes, concentrating on that image, and after a few moments, the feeling of butterflies that had been starting in her stomach faded. Slowly, Alex took a deep breath, then let it out, felt herself starting to relax.

"Uh…" Justin said then, "Alex, what are you watching?"

Her eyes snapped open, and Alex found her blush returning even brighter than before as she saw the naked man and woman embracing on the screen. She grabbed for the remote, but too quickly, and her hand struck the remote, knocking it onto the floor. "Oh, uh, I wasn't really -"

Alex half-slid off the bed in her haste to get to the remote again, but she couldn't tear her eyes off the couple on the screen. The woman had her eyes closed, her mouth slightly open as the man pulled her hair to the side, then bit her there, and - and mercifully, her thumb found the power button and cut it off. "I, uh, I'd just kind of turned it on for the noise, and…."

Normally, Justin would have enjoyed watching Alex squirm, but right now, with what he'd just seen, he was a little afraid that if he tried to tease her, he'd take it too far. _Might be better if I just get away from Alex for a few minutes, let myself cool down_. "There's a burger place near here," he said then, walking toward the door. "I'm going to get us some food and bring it back here."

"Hey!" Alex jumped up from the floor, then half-ran over to Justin. "No leaving me alone here!" Waving a hand around at the room, she said, "There's probably rats in a place like this. Or roaches. So I'm coming with you."

A shadow of something went across Justin's face, and Alex wondered what he was thinking. He nodded then, though, and said, "All right. Let's get going." Opening the door, he gestured for her to go first.

* * *

"When did it start getting cold?" Alex hugged herself and shivered a bit as a gust of icy wind blew across them. Justin frowned, then took Alex's arm to stop her, shrugged out of his jacket and held it out for her to get into. It was big on her, but it did help, and she gave him a grateful smile as they started to move again.

"We're almost there," he said aloud, nodding toward their destination. "We can hurry a bit - that'll help warm us up too." Justin picked up the pace, and Alex matched it. When they reached the building, he broke from her to move forward and open the door for her.

Inside, it was much nicer, but Alex kept her arms around herself as she got into line, rubbing a little as she tried to warm back up. "Here," Justin said then, and he hugged her from behind, his arms over hers, pressed against her to help warm her back up.

Alex relaxed against her brother, let herself enjoy the feel of his warm body against hers. The line moved forward, and the pair of them moved with little shuffling steps, staying together. Part of Alex wanted to let it last, but after a minute or so, she turned her head and whispered, "Thanks. I'm warm enough now."

Justin let go just as the guy in line in front of them finished giving his order, and he and Alex moved up to the register. "We'll take a barbecue bacon cheeseburger, fries, a chocolate shake with whipped cream, and a number five combo, please," he said, pulling out his wallet as he did. Alex smiled a little at the fact that Justin remembered her favorite. _Which is more than Dean's ever done_, a voice in her head said, and she frowned at that for a moment.

As they ate, Alex stole fries from Justin, and he kept trying to block her hand when she'd go for them, each time letting her eventually get past and snatch one. When his fries were almost completely gone, Alex said she'd had enough, and gave him her untouched fries.

When they were done, Justin excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Alex waited at the table, playing with her straw as she did. "I can take that for you," a voice said, and Alex looked up to see one of the staff - a girl about her age, with long brown hair in a braid, blue eyes in a mildly cute face, and a nametag that said "Samantha".

"Oh, sure," Alex said, pushing the tray toward her.

Samantha picked it up, giving Alex a smile. "I hope you don't mind my saying, but it's really cute, the way you and your boyfriend play together."

"He's not my boyfriend," Alex said automatically, and then wished she hadn't as she saw Samantha's eyebrows go up slightly, saw her glance toward the bathroom then. A jealous urge rose up in Alex, and - _Why not? Already did it once today._

"Is he -" Samantha started, but Alex cut her off.

"He's my husband," she said with a smile. "We're on our honeymoon, actually." She slipped her left hand under the table, wishing she had magic to supply herself with a ring.

"Oh, congratulations, then," Samantha said with a smile. She said something else, but Alex wasn't really listening now, as she saw Justin emerge from the bathroom and start toward them.

Standing up, Alex said, "Thanks," to her, then walked over to Justin and took his hand, looked up at him with a smile. "Let's get back to the hotel," she said, making sure Samantha could hear it. "I really want to get to bed."

A completely unsuspecting Justin simply nodded and said, "Okay," and it was all Alex could do to keep her smile from becoming a smirk as they left.

* * *

The walk back seemed even colder, and as soon as they got back, Justin moved to the room's heater, turned it on, then held up a hand in front of the vent, waiting for the air to warm up. Two minutes later, he frowned a little. The air didn't seem very warm, but... _Ah, well. I can survive one cold night, I'm sure, and Alex'll have the blankets. It should be fine._

They watched TV for a bit, sitting on the bed, playing games with the remote each time a show would end - games that always ended up with Alex having it. Around ten-thirty, Justin tried his wand again. It still wasn't working, and he sighed. "Well... I guess we should go to bed," he said. Then he sat up, reached down and took the hem of his t-shirt, pulled it off, then held it out to Alex.

"Since you don't have any pajamas to wear, you can wear my shirt to sleep in, if you want," he said. Alex looked at the offered shirt for a moment, then took it and nodded quickly, trying to keep her eyes on her brother's face as she did.

A few minutes later, Alex came out of the bathroom, wearing Justin's shirt as a cover-up over her bra and panties. He was sitting over on the room's one chair, and Alex felt a moment of pique over the fact that she didn't look up when she came out, instead continuing to look down at his cell phone, doing something with it.

"Your turn," she said then, standing at the end of the bed. Justin looked up, and Alex smiled a little as his eyes first went to her face, then started to slide down her body before he jerked them back up with a noticeable effort.

"I was just texting Dad to tell him we're doing okay here," Justin said, getting up and starting toward the sink as he did. "He says they got the dragons back, and they expect to have the power back on in a few hours, but we might as well go to sleep." He turned sideways to move past Alex, not touching her, and then suddenly she was hugging him, pressing her head against his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Justin asked quickly, frowning as he put his arms around his little sister.

She nodded, said, "Yeah. I just wanted to say... thank you. Even with all the stupid stuff that happened, today really was a good day."

Justin smiled, then gave Alex a squeeze. "Good. I'm glad you liked it." They held on for a few more moments, then broke apart awkwardly, and Alex slipped into the bed while Justin brushed his teeth. She let her eyelids droop, but not close all the way, instead watching the way the muscles in Justin's back moved. When he turned back around, she closed her eyes all the way, listened as he went around the bed, took one of the pillows from it, clicked off the light, and then lay down on the floor.

It was 1:49 AM by the clock when Alex woke up. There was a noise, like a clicking, and she suddenly realized as well that she was chilly, even with the blanket. She folded herself up into a fetal position, trying to get warm, hoping whatever that noise was would go away soon. A minute later, it still hadn't, and it was then that Alex realized the noise was coming from inside the room.

She sat up, said, "Justin? Do you hear that?" There was no response, though, and she sighed a little, reached and found the switch for the light by the bed, turned it on and looked over at him.

Justin was curled tightly on the floor, his jacket over him as a completely inadequate blanket - and then Alex realized what the noise was. Justin's teeth were chattering.

Immediately, she threw back the covers and went to him, grabbed him by the arm and pulled up. "Justin - you're freezing!" she said, but he simply looked at her dully, blinking slowly.

"Oh, for God's sake - come on. We have to get you warmed up." Alex pulled Justin over to the bed, half-pushed him onto it, then climbed on with him, pulling the blanket up over both of them. Moving behind him, Alex pressed her chest and belly against his back for a moment. He felt cold to her, but the cloth of his shirt kept her from feeling most of it, and Alex sat up, pulled Justin's shirt off of herself, then moved back against him.

His skin was very cold where it touched hers, but she didn't worry about that as she felt him shivering, instead putting her arms around him. "Justin - you should have said something!" she said then.

"Ah-ah-ah-I'll b-be o -" he started, but Alex interrupted.

"No you won't. You can't even talk, you're so cold. Don't be so nice you freeze, idiot." Justin didn't say anything to that, but he moved his hands, shakily taking the blankets and pulling them tighter around himself. Alex held onto him, worried, but not sure what else she could do without magic. _He'll be okay once he warms up. He's got to be okay. _Biting her lip, Alex considered for a moment. _If we've got more skin touching, that should warm him faster, right?_

She reached around then and unbuttoned Justin's pants, started to search for his zipper pull, but he put a hand on hers, shook his head. "No - you tr-treat hypothermia by warming the - the torso first," Justin said.

"Okay," Alex replied, feeling relief that Justin wasn't having so much trouble talking now, and, more importantly, he seemed to be thinking okay. His teeth had stopped chattering, she noticed then, and while he was shivering some, it wasn't constant. _Good. _

Alex shifted, pressing herself more firmly against Justin, and after a couple of minutes, he stopped shivering entirely. Closing her eyes for a moment, Alex took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, feeling relieved now.

A few minutes later, Justin turned over. A little surprised, Alex let go of him. "Thanks," he said. "You're right. I was being stupid. It's just... we're not little kids any more, and..." He trailed off there, and Alex shook her head.

"And you felt like you had to freeze to death, because you're a boy and I'm a girl? Justin..." She moved in close, against him, put her arms around him. "I may tease you, and complain about you, but... there's no one in the world I trust more than you. If you needed to be in here with me, you should have just said so." Alex turned her head to the side, her forehead against her brother's chin. "I know you'd do anything for me. I'd do anything for you too."

They lay there like that, holding onto each other, and then Alex sniffled. Justin pulled his head back to look at her, but Alex turned over, turning her face away from him. "Alex? What's wrong?" he asked, but she shook her head, and he frowned, then moved against her, putting his arms around her.

"I... I'm sorry," she said. "I was just thinking about today, and then I thought about you leaving for college in a few months, and... you'll visit, right? I mean, I know you'll be busy, but -"

"Of course I'll visit." Justin rolled a little, side-to-side, rocking Alex in his arms like when they were little. "You just said you know I'd do anything for you. You think that wouldn't include visiting? Don't be silly." He brushed her hair back from her temple with one hand, kissed her there. "I wouldn't know what to do without you around, Alex. Really."

She smiled at that, then nodded. "Okay," she said, then. After a moment, Justin started to take his arm from around Alex, but she shook her head quickly, said, "No - hold me. Just... just hold me."

"I'm just going to turn off the light again," he said, and Alex nodded to that. Justin let go of her, turned it off quickly, then put his arms back around his sister. There, in the dark, he held her, and though it was cold in the room, together they were warm.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

... and that's it for that V-day! This one was a bit longer than my usual chapters, but I didn't really want to split it into two.

Speaking of splitting things in two, on advice from a friend, I'm going to be splitting this story. This part will remain T-rated; the new story will be M-rated - that way people who are looking for T-rated only material can find the existing twelve chapters of _Valentines_ more easily.

The new story will be titled _Valentines Continued: Unfolding Flowers_. When I post the first chapter, I'll also add a new chapter here, directing people to it.

And as always, thanks to all of you who read my stories! I love hearing from you!


	13. Chapter 13

The M-rated continuation of Valentines, titled _Valentines Continued: Unfolding Flowers_ has been posted, so as promised, I'm notifying readers of _Valentines_ here.

Hope you enjoy it!


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